Lateral variations of coda Q and attenuation of seismic waves in the Gulf of Suez, Egypt

Gulf of Suez consists mainly of three tectonic provinces that are separated by two accommodation zones. The southern edge of the gulf is bordered by N–S faults which mark the transition between the shallow water, Suez Basin and the deep northern Red Sea Basin. The sensitivity of coda Q measurements with respect to geological differences in the crust is demonstrated in three regions with a large variety of tectonic and geologic properties. The estimation of coda Q ( Q c) is performed for 370 local earthquakes recorded at 12 digital seismic stations during the period from 2000 to 2007. The magnitudes of the earthquakes between 1.5 and ~4.5 have been used at central frequencies 1.5, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, and 24 Hz through three lapse time windows 10, 20, 30 s starting at once and twice the time of the primary S wave from the origin time. The time domain coda decay method of the single isotropic scattering model is employed to calculate frequency-dependent values of coda Q. The Q c values are frequency dependent in the range 1–25 Hz, and are approximated by a least squares fit to the power law [ Q c (f) = Q o (f/f o )η ]. The observed coda Q indicates that the area is seismically and tectonically active with high heterogeneities. The variation of the quality factor Q c has been estimated at different regions to observe the effect of different tectonic province. The average frequency-dependent estimated relations of Q c vary from 65 f 1.1 to 96 f 0.9 at 10 to 30 s window length, respectively. The decreasing value of the frequency parameter with increasing lapse time shows that the crust acquires homogeneity with depth. The variation of Q c with the variations in the geologic and tectonic properties of the crust was investigated. The frequency exponent η might be larger in active tectonic areas and smaller in more stable regions. In the northern region of the Gulf of Suez, the obtained value of η = 0.8 ± 0.011, which might indicate a low level of tectonic activity compared with η = 1.1 ± 0.005 and 1.3 ± 0.009 for the central and southern regions of the gulf.